Bochco’s ‘Experiment’ Over: ABC Cancels ‘Cop Rock’

“Cop Rock,” Steven Bochco’s experiment in musical television, which has been one of the lowest-rated shows of this season, won’t be around to sing in the new year, ABC announced Monday. The network said the program will air only four more times over the next six weeks and will then be replaced by a series to be named later.

“I’m disappointed that the show didn’t succeed,” said the acclaimed producer of such network hits as “Hill St. Blues, “L.A. Law” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.” in a phone interview Monday. He declined to speculate about why the public did not turn to the show, which was the 80th rated show out of the 98 series that have aired this season. For the seven episodes that have aired so far, “Cop Rock” has consistently finished last in its Wednesday-night time period. Bochco said he could see no way he would ever get a network to approve another musical.

The expensive cop show, which drew ringing praise from many television critics, combined a dark and often satiric police drama with five musical numbers each episode. Lately, the series has been watched by only about 11% of those watching television at 10 p.m. Wednesdays, while its primary opposition, NBC’s traditional cop show “Hunter,” has been drawing more than twice as many viewers.

This season’s other musical series, “Hull High,” was canceled by NBC because of low ratings three weeks ago.

In an effort to save the show, ABC went so far as to study the minute-by-minute ratings of the program and determined that a large percentage of viewers were tuning out as soon as any of the characters began to sing, according to advertising trade publications. ABC executives reportedly used this data in an effort to persuade Bochco to eliminate some or all of the musical numbers from the show.

Bochco said Monday that he was never interested in altering the show’s form. ABC Entertainment President Robert Iger was not available for comment.

In a prepared announcement, Iger said: “In ‘Cop Rock,’ Steven Bochco delivered a daring and brilliantly produced series, one all of us at ABC are proud to be associated with.”

Though a Barbara Walters special will preempt “Cop Rock” this week, ABC will broadcast four more episodes, the last of which will air on Dec. 26. The network originally ordered 13 episodes from Bochco’s production company, but will now show only the 11 that have been made to date.

“Cop Rock” was Bochco’s second series for ABC under a 10-series, multimillion-dollar contract. The first, “Doogie Howser, M.D.” has been winning its 9 p.m. Wednesday time slot and has been consistently in the top 20 shows. Bochco is still involved in “Doogie’s” production and is an executive consultant on “L.A. Law.”

He is developing an animated series for ABC about mice that live in the White House.